Two years have passed since the release of Advance Wars: Dual Strike. In two years time, the people of CW have been witness to amazing events. We've seen the revitalization of communities, we've seen the immense creativity that could be channeled by the simply release of the game. It's been a long journey here. From the Design Forum of AWN, where Custom Wars started, where the creative likes of FreeLance_FoX, Overlord Smurf, Xaif, and others, came together to produce amazing work. It was in that time that we saw an explosion of players coming to play AWBW, and what eventually came was the idea of Custom Wars.

It was an unlikely project, brought together by people that would have otherwise been shunned by the AWN Community of the time. No one ever expected that it would take off so quickly. Within months, the idea that Sturm=Best:p came up with had flourished into a large AW community of it's own. Under FreeLance_FoX's leadership, the community reached new heights. Indeed, I can't honestly say that there would be a CW without his leadership, however many mistakes that he did make. I've criticized FoX in the past, but I must credit him with building the foundations upon which I could continue the project.

With the betrayal of RWD, we saw our first setback. We saw all of our work thrown away, all for a joke. It wasn't an easy time for any of us, finding out that everything that we had planned for months had fallen apart. But we moved on. All of us did. You all put your confidence in me and Xenesis to move the project forward, even in our darkest hour. Were it not for the community, we could have done none of this.

And over the past year, we've come even farther. We've accomplished in the past year everything that we couldn't manage to do in those six months. It's been rough, and we've had our fair share of conflicts, and at times we all wondered where all of our bickering would lead the project. No matter what our opinions of what should have happened during any of our many battles over this CO or that unit, we've made a game that we can all be proud of. We've done something that was never attempted before, and we're nearly finished.

But, something happened today. We lost a member today, a member we all knew well, a member that I believed was of tantamount importance to the project. How ever much credit Sven gives me for leading the community, I couldn't have done it without conferring with him, and asking for his advice on how best to continue leading this community. No small amount of credit should be given to him. Without him I don't know where we'd be. We didn't just lose a member today, we lost a leader, even if he never thought of himself as such.

Today, we've come full circle and over the past couple months, it's become apparent to me: Custom Wars today is not the same as it was a year ago. The board may be the same, and the community may be every bit as familiar, but things have changed. Today is a time to look again at what we see, and ask ourselves if this is the way it ought to be.

Today we're at a crossroads. This isn't just any other day, this is the day we have to decide for ourselves that we will continue moving forward. It will take a conscious effort today, like never before in our history, to finish, and complete the dream that has been with us for these past two years. Today it would be too easy for us to just let things happen, to tell ourselves that things will work themselves out. We've seen around us every day the passing of AW communities, communities that simply gave out because there was no will to continue on, no will to push forward and fight for survival.

Today each and every one of us must make the decision to do whatever we can to complete our mission, to do what no one ever thought we could do. Today is an important day, because what we do today will reflect on our character, it will tell us the kind of people we are. Today, I can see our future with more clarity than I have on any other day, and I can see our way forward. But in order for that vision to become reality, we all must dedicate ourselves more than we ever have during the past.

Today, we cross the Rubicon, and we don't look back to see what could have been, we only look towards the future and make that future bright.

We have to dedicate ourselves towards a single established goal. After talking with uru and Vimes, I've determined that it's a realistic goal for us to have Custom Wars 1.0 by the end of this year. It will by no means be easy, but if we dedicate ourselves now towards completing this task, we can make it.

At this point, our major concern is finalizing our unit stats, stopping CO submissions and balancing what we have as much as possible, and finishing the DM sprites and BAs. On the programming end, we only need to complete Mist of War, implement the last few COs, and integrate BAs (which is the big hurdle.)

The recent restructuring of the mod groups has been to aid our successful completion of these tasks. If you don't know how to help, contact me or the other mods and we'll see how we can best use our resources to finish the tasks ahead of us.

If you can program, we do need people to finish those last few COs, if we can leave the lead programmers to tackle the big items we'll save ourselves lots of time. If you can help with graphics, that would be great, as we're still working to finish the sprites for our last army. And if nothing else, playing with the current CCOs to develop your own knowledge for making informed decisions on balance surveys will be very helpful, and I'm sure Frosty could figure out some way to put you to good use.

if you wouldn't have made it so damned dramatic I wouldn't have said anything >_>

Anyway, well-said regardless.

Question: will campaigns be finished by CW 1.0?

Campaigns I think are secondary to the online game. There's little point in releasing campaigns unless there's a large player community to support it.

The plan as I see it is we finish CW 1.0 by the end of the year, and we release regular 2-3 month patches that include huge updates like campaigns, updated AI, with all the bugs worked out before a release, and we keep on a regular update schedule rather than an addition here and there every couple weeks like we've been doing. This will hopefully keep online play disrupted as little as possible, since people will have to restart everything they're doing after every update.

This should really be in Serous Business or Complaints and Suggestions so there won't be stupid posts like those.

When I started going here I didn't play CW, I just hung around on the social boards. I started playing so I could know the game better and contribute to the game.

I can't really think of what I could do. I'm not that talented in graphics, balance, or making CO's, but I am confident in my writing skills. If there's anything that needs scripting or the such, I'll be happy to help.

CW is going good, but because of all the different member's different opinions, nothing is really getting done. We should just stop redoing sprites and CO's for the littlest details.

if you wouldn't have made it so damned dramatic I wouldn't have said anything >_>

Anyway, well-said regardless.

Question: will campaigns be finished by CW 1.0?

Campaigns I think are secondary to the online game. There's little point in releasing campaigns unless there's a large player community to support it.

The plan as I see it is we finish CW 1.0 by the end of the year, and we release regular 2-3 month patches that include huge updates like campaigns, updated AI, with all the bugs worked out before a release, and we keep on a regular update schedule rather than an addition here and there every couple weeks like we've been doing. This will hopefully keep online play disrupted as little as possible, since people will have to restart everything they're doing after every update.

ok, if this is the case, couldn't we release CCOs in "sets"?

CW 1.0 will bring in players with just custom units and a balanced metagame with all of the ISCOs and it isn't unreasonable to get that finished by that time.

We have a few separate groups of COs and balance them group by group. We maintain regularity, we make balancing work more manageable, we make the game less overwhelming in its first stages which brings in players (hopefully generating interest among other communities such as AWBW, which makes further balance work of the rest of the COs that much easier).

Also: mass rebooth, yes or no?

_________________Advance Wars

Last edited by Kristoph on Tue Aug 28, 2007 9:36 am, edited 2 times in total.

This should really be in Serous Business or Complaints and Suggestions so there won't be stupid posts like those.

When I started going here I didn't play CW, I just hung around on the social boards. I started playing so I could know the game better and contribute to the game.

I can't really think of what I could do. I'm not that talented in graphics, balance, or making CO's, but I am confident in my writing skills. If there's anything that needs scripting or the such, I'll be happy to help.

CW is going good, but because of all the different member's different opinions, nothing is really getting done. We should just stop redoing sprites and CO's for the littlest details.

Well, if writing is your talent, we can always use you for dialouge. I'm not sure if we have all of the menu quotes or defeat quotes done yet, but I think your brother is in charge of
But again, if nothing else, playing the game with people of around your skill level can always help us so that we can start identifying tiers of COs. If we can program the remaining COs, and then put them all into rough tiers, and nerf/buff accordingly, we can hopefully get a rough balance, which is what is needed.all that, so you can ask him about it.

Ideal balance is probably impossible to achieve, but we can at least start to move towards a solution.

BlameGame: Yes, that's probably a good idea, and I think we're going along those lines with Frosty's plan. As for rebooths, I'm considering them, but it's a massive undertaking and we'd need to start picking out COs that really need to be reboothed for whatever reason.

If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that Sven, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of Advance Wars will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no fansite which expects to be the leader of other fansites can expect to stay behind in the race for gameplay balance.

Those who came before us made certain that this site rode the first waves of the balance revolutions, the first waves of modern spriting, and the first wave of tag power, and this generation does not intend to founder in the backwash of the coming age of Advance Wars. We mean to be a part of it--we mean to lead it. For the eyes of the Internet now look into Advance Wars, to Custom Wars and to the fangames beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of drama, but by a banner of freedom and lulz. We have vowed that we shall not see the Internet filled with websites of massive faggotry, but with instruments of fun and gameplay.

Yet the vows of this site can only be fulfilled if we in this site are first, and, therefore, we intend to be first. In short, our leadership in balance and in gameplay, our hopes for fun and lulz, our obligations to ourselves as well as others, all require us to make this effort, to solve these mysteries, to solve them for the good of all men, and to become the world's leading Advance Wars fansite.

We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new tourneys to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For balance science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on Sven, and only if Custom Wars occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of win or a new terrifying theater of drama. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of Advance Wars any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of Counterstrike or Starcraft, but I do say that Advance Wars can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of drama, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this Internet of ours.

There is no strife, no prejudice, no national conflict on Internet as yet. Its hazards are hostile to us all. Its conquest deserves the best of all mankind, and its opportunity for peaceful cooperation may never come again. But why, some say, Custom Wars? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 80 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Juigi write a LiveJournal?

We choose to make Custom Wars! We choose to make Custom Wars in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and our skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win.

Cause love's such and old fashioned word.
And love dares us to care
For the people on the edge of the nigh
And love dares us to change our way of
Thinking about ourselves.
This is our last dance.
This is our last dance.
This is ourselves...

Under Pressure.

_________________

Individual wrote:

I think what he meant was that bad stuff can also be entertaining. Like uh, watching any movie with Halle Berry in it. The movie sucks ass, but god damn!

Since the only thing I can really do is play more, I'll do my best with that starting tomorrow or today. Keep in mind school already started for me, but I'll do my best to help with the project.

Thank you for your speech, Silifi. The tone was honestly more optimistic than I expected.

_________________Sig by Sasquatch.
Hit: KindnessMiss: PainViolence = Leading cause of death in this country = illegal = fine and dandy. Pg-13, R if it's really bad.
Sex = leading cause of life in this country = natural and perfectly legal biological process = OMG TEH NOES XXX!11!!! ---Someone at some forum, I forget
"If you have made mistakes. . . there is always another chance for you. . . You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down but the staying down." -- Mary Pickford

Yeah, I know Guesty, school's starting for everyone. Which is why we're really going to have to keep ourselves motivated to keep things going. That's why making these steps right now is so important: if we don't make our conscious effort today, CW will fade away. It's do or die at this point.

Hm, I see. I'll make my games today, but for some reason Beta 23 refuses to download. Does the server work with Beta 22 still or not?

_________________Sig by Sasquatch.
Hit: KindnessMiss: PainViolence = Leading cause of death in this country = illegal = fine and dandy. Pg-13, R if it's really bad.
Sex = leading cause of life in this country = natural and perfectly legal biological process = OMG TEH NOES XXX!11!!! ---Someone at some forum, I forget
"If you have made mistakes. . . there is always another chance for you. . . You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down but the staying down." -- Mary Pickford

Silifi said that all of us can help by playtesting the game. We don't necessarily have to be programmers.

_________________Sig by Sasquatch.
Hit: KindnessMiss: PainViolence = Leading cause of death in this country = illegal = fine and dandy. Pg-13, R if it's really bad.
Sex = leading cause of life in this country = natural and perfectly legal biological process = OMG TEH NOES XXX!11!!! ---Someone at some forum, I forget
"If you have made mistakes. . . there is always another chance for you. . . You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down but the staying down." -- Mary Pickford

_________________Sig by Sasquatch.
Hit: KindnessMiss: PainViolence = Leading cause of death in this country = illegal = fine and dandy. Pg-13, R if it's really bad.
Sex = leading cause of life in this country = natural and perfectly legal biological process = OMG TEH NOES XXX!11!!! ---Someone at some forum, I forget
"If you have made mistakes. . . there is always another chance for you. . . You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call 'failure' is not the falling down but the staying down." -- Mary Pickford

The only thing I can do is text (hell, I must be the only person who visits Typewriter consistently), which limits me to helping out with Interface quotes and such, since I am not part of any campaign (and even if I were, those are secondary).

How about we just make a voting booth topic where people make lists of everything they want taken out, and we only revote stuff that shows up on 50% of the lists or something? At least then we won't have 50 topics to sort through at once in the booth.

EDIT: lol, already started by Silifi.

_________________

urusan wrote:

Do what Fugue said

Last edited by Fugue on Tue Aug 28, 2007 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I can't program or sprite worth shit, but I can write, and learn to play the game rather well if need be. So, if you need anything, I'm more than willing to put some time towards this and make this vision of the community's possible if someone would contact me and give me some actual direction.

Glad to see that this project is finally going somewhere, and I wish you all the best of luck in completing it by the projected date; hopefully I can bring something to the table to make this vision possible.

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